Audio problems

Hi everyone!!
New user here. I'm a FCPX amateur who likes to do different types of videos.

I have a question I haven't found an answer to in google, and came across these forums, so I decided to see if you guys can help me.

I'm doing some projects in which I record my voice with a condenser microphone using a mid-2010 Macbook Pro + Audacity and then add it to the timeline in FCPX.

The problem is that FCPX seems to lower the volume of the audio around 6dB. If I create an empty project and just add the audio, I need to set the levels to +6dB (!!!) in order to get the same volume output as in Audacity or when playing the raw WAV file.

What's happening?

Also notice that after applying +6dB, a lot of regions of the audio in FCPX will go yellow AND red. BUT. When I play it back and monitor the audio with the audio meter, it never goes over 0dB and audio never seems to saturate...

What's happening??


Thank you very much!!!

The colors in FCPX's waveforms are estimations, not exact.
Why not just record directly in FCPX?

FCPX doesn't change the gain of an audio file when you import it. I use Audacity and find its meters are tiny and don't give enough information to be that accurate. Voice work should average -3 to -6 db. But again, why not just record inside of FCPX to start with?

BenB wrote: The colors in FCPX's waveforms are estimations, not exact.

FCPX doesn't change the gain of an audio file when you import it. I use Audacity and find its meters are tiny and don't give enough information to be that accurate. Voice work should average -3 to -6 db.

Then I don't understand what's happening. Imagine I have a hardware dB meter in front of my computer speakers.
1st scenario: Raw WAV file reproduced with quicktime.
2nd scenario: Audio playback from FCPX's timeline.

2nd measurement would be much less than 1st. That's what I can't get my head around. What is FCPX doing?

BenB wrote: Why not just record directly in FCPX?

But again, why not just record inside of FCPX to start with?

I record my audio with a Macbook Pro incapable of running FCPX properly. That's why I record with Audacity, it gives great performance and the ability to export to WAV and then import it to FCPX in my desktop computer.

For the record: I can't record with my desktop computer because I never record at home.

I'm not sure why you think your MBP won't record VO with FCPX. What leads you to that conclusion? I used to do it with a 2007 MPB. For simple recording of voice work, FCPX should run fine. Otherwise, Audacity is a nice option, but the meters are not good enough to judge anything beyond if it is clipping or not, IMHO.

I'm not sure what meters you're going by in Audacity. You can't go by only the perceived sound level from your speakers. Audacity may be set to a higher output level, QT player may be.

Personally, I'd save out AIFF, also.

BenB wrote: I'm not sure why you think your MBP won't record VO with FCPX. What leads you to that conclusion? I used to do it with a 2007 MPB. For simple recording of voice work, FCPX should run fine. Otherwise, Audacity is a nice option, but the meters are not good enough to judge anything beyond if it is clipping or not, IMHO.

I'm not sure what meters you're going by in Audacity. You can't go by only the perceived sound level from your speakers. Audacity may be set to a higher output level, QT player may be.

Personally, I'd save out AIFF, also.

Interesting. So a FCPX recording should be of a similar quality to Audacity's?

Then your suggestion would be recording with FCPX with the MBP and export it to AIFF?

Thanks Ben!

The digital recording is going to be the same, basically, no matter what software you use. Apps are only reading data from the hardware audio input. A good quality microphone will go you more good than a specific application to record it with. I do VO work a LOT, and I almost always do it inside FCPX. Here's two articles about doing VO in FCPX.

www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-...-editing-short-takes

www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-...diting-long-projects

Now, I use a very expensive pro microphone, too. But FCPX will record just fine. Does a great job. If I'm doing something complex or really long, I'll use Logic Pro X. I love its multi-take folder, and wish that tool could be incorporated into FCPX's audio recording functions.

BenB wrote: The digital recording is going to be the same, basically, no matter what software you use. Apps are only reading data from the hardware audio input. A good quality microphone will go you more good than a specific application to record it with. I do VO work a LOT, and I almost always do it inside FCPX. Here's two articles about doing VO in FCPX.

www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-...-editing-short-takes

www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-...diting-long-projects

Now, I use a very expensive pro microphone, too. But FCPX will record just fine. Does a great job. If I'm doing something complex or really long, I'll use Logic Pro X. I love its multi-take folder, and wish that tool could be incorporated into FCPX's audio recording functions.

Thanks!